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A Department of Health funded survey conducted by the Mental Health Alliance on the use of the Mental Health Act has all but excluded the views of black people of African descent, at a time when their detention rates are at an all time high, even though there isn't a higher prevalence of mental illness... Read more..

Steve Reed MP's new private members Bill aimed at improving oversight and management of the use of force in mental health units and similar institutions has received cross party support. However BMH UK are clear that ending, not monitoring, the use of force and excessive levels of coercion against... Read more..

Human rights campaigns group Black Mental Health UK (BMH UK) view today's announcement by Met Commissioner Cresssida Dick that more officers will be trained to use Taser as a retrograde step that has serious implications for the safety of innocent black people from the UK's African Caribbean communities,... Read more..

By Staff writerWith black people from the UK's African Caribbean communities continuing to be disproportionately subject to detention under the Mental Health Act and subject to highly coercive treatment when in this system, even thought there aren't higher rates of mental illness amongst this... Read more..

The growing consensus that the UKs Mental Health Act is used as a tool of state oppression against black people of African descent was among the catalogue of concerns raised with the UK Government by international human rights experts from the United Nations Committee for the Rights of people with Disabilities (CRPD). Committee members raised concerns about the disturbing levels of state violence that black people who are detained in psychiatric settings are subject to and the routine use of Taser firearms in hospital settings.

Steve Reed MP's new private members Bill aimed at improving oversight and management of the use of force in mental health units and similar institutions has received cross party support. However BMH UK are clear that ending, not monitoring, the use of force and excessive levels of coercion against black people of African descent who are disproportionately detained under the Mental Health Act, and over represented across all other custodial settings, is the only way to bring an end to the growing numbers who lose their lives while in the 'care' of the state every year.

Concerns raised by BMH UK at the United Nations in April that Britain's African Caribbean communities experience the police as race soldiers has been reinforced by the death of Edir Frederico Da Costa last Wednesday, after reports that he was 'brutally beaten' by officers during a routine traffic stop 'sustaining: a broken neck; broken collarbone; brain damage as a result of head injuries and loss of sight caused by CS spray'. This latest in a long line of killings, sparked protest in North London this week, while human rights groups question the flawed and lengthy investigations surrounding such incidents, which fail to deliver justice for the bereaved and the community, but fuel costly legal bureaucratic processes that last for many years.

By Staff writerWith black people from the UK's African Caribbean communities continuing to be disproportionately subject to detention under the Mental Health Act and subject to highly coercive treatment when in this system, even thought there aren't higher rates of mental illness amongst this group, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health's new report calling for a move away from traditional thinking and the outdated practices that violate human rights has been welcomed across black Britain.

With the racial bias in diagnosis continuing to drive the disproportionately high incidence rate of labelling black people from the UK's African Caribbean communities with schizophrenia, community campaigners say that new data showing that people who are given this diagnosis are at an increased risk of developing diabetes have failed to factor this into their research. Human rights experts point to the need for this sector to acknowledge that the raft of physical illnesses and reduced life expectancy of up to 30 years of people detained in this system is due to environmental factors such as the over medication and punitive 'care' that black patients, more than any other group, are subject to.

A Department of Health funded survey conducted by the Mental Health Alliance on the use of the Mental Health Act has all but excluded the views of black people of African descent, at a time when their detention rates are at an all time high, even though there isn't a higher prevalence of mental illness amongst this group. This sidelining of the views of the UK's African Caribbean communities is reflective of the discrimination within the clique of agencies that the DH commission to produce reports to support their projected mental health policies that have proven to be detrimental for three generations of Black Britons.

Prime Minister Theresa May's commitment to introduce the most sweeping reforms to mental health legislation in more than three decades presents the opportunity to end way the 1983 Mental Health Act has been used as a tool of state oppression against three generations of black people from the UK's African Caribbean communities and reform racist diagnostic tools which have been used to justify the debilitating levels of medication and punitive 'care' that black people in this system are routinely subject to.

Human rights campaigns group Black Mental Health UK (BMH UK) view today's announcement by Met Commissioner Cresssida Dick that more officers will be trained to use Taser as a retrograde step that has serious implications for the safety of innocent black people from the UK's African Caribbean communities, particularly those who are forced to use mental health services.

The Minister of State for Fire and Police, Brandon Lewis MP acknowledged Black Mental Health UK in his statement to parliament on the work by the police to improve transparency on how they use force, however he also confirmed that the Home Secretary has authorised a new more powerful Taser. BMH UK are concerned that the introduction of this weapon will undermine community confidence in the police and lead to higher levels of force being used against the most vulnerable people from Britain's black communities.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd's decision to green light the next generation of Taser guns is a retrograde step, which may well prove to be a matter of life and death for black Britons. These well founded fears have been sparked in the wake of data showing that those known to have a mental health condition are four times more likely to die after police use force against them, and that black people of African descent are three times more likely to be subject to this firearm than their white counterparts.